Ofer Hugi ( he, עופר חוגי, born 17 April 1964) is a former
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i politician who served as a
Knesset
The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (wit ...
member for
Shas
Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...
from 1999 to 2003, and again for just under a month in 2006. In 2007, he was sent to prison for various charges related to forgery and fraud.
Background
After finishing school, Hugi was
conscripted
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
into the
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
*Irish Defence Forces
*Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
*Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
*Israeli Diving Federation
*Interaction ...
, where he attained the rank of Staff Sergeant. After completing his service, he studied for a B.A. in Rabbinical Ordination, and went on to work as an administrator.
Political career
Hugi joined
Shas
Shas ( he, ש״ס) is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily ...
, a
Mizrahi/
Sephardi
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
ultra-Orthodox
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
party. He was elected to the Knesset in the
1999 elections when the party won an unprecedented 17 seats, making it the third-largest party after
One Israel
One Israel ( he, ישראל אחת, ''Yisrael Ahat'') was an alliance of the Labor Party, Meimad and Gesher created to run for the 1999 Knesset elections.
Background
One Israel was formed by Labor leader Ehud Barak in the run-up to the 1 ...
(the
Labour Party) and
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel S ...
. However, Hugi lost his seat in the
2003 elections when the party was reduced to 11 seats (he was 12th on the list), possibly as a result of the party's growing reputation for corruption, several of its members having been convicted of various fraudulent offences.
He did briefly enter the Knesset at the end of April 2006 after Shas MK
Yair Peretz had resigned from the Knesset after being convicted of fraud (he had fraudulently obtained an academic degree), but the Knesset was dissolved on 17 April, and Hugi did not win a seat in the
2006 elections.
Conviction
After replacing an MK who had been convicted of fraud, in December 2006, Hugi was found guilty of aggravated forgery, using forged documents (by recording a fictitious salary for his wife, he avoided income tax), receiving items through fraudulent means, false registration of a corporation, and attempting to receive items through fraudulent means (including Education Ministry funding for student transportation). This was in relation to a technical college which he founded in the late 1990s, and had received hundreds of thousand of
shekels for, though it later became apparent that the lists of students and teachers he had provided were fictitious.
In February 2007, Hugi was sentenced to two years in prison, and ordered to pay a fine of 12,000 shekels.
Ex-MK Hugi sentenced to two years in jail for embezzlement
Haaretz, 19 February 2007
See also
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hugi, Ofer
1964 births
Living people
Israeli Orthodox Jews
Israeli politicians convicted of fraud
Members of the 15th Knesset (1999–2003)
Members of the 16th Knesset (2003–2006)
Shas politicians
Israeli politicians convicted of crimes